The Hunters trail
by The Vampaneze Lady
Summary: *Sequel to 'The New Lord'* Darren and Steve are side by side as mentor and Asisstant-not forgetting Larten the little Person-but with two hunters on their trail-and the third still to be found-will the pair be able to cope?
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome, one and all, to the Cirque Du Freak! Nah, I kid! Welcome to my sequel fic to 'The new Lord'**

**It's gonna be full of even more shocks and surprises-and, just a little note-NONE of the reviewers for the last chapter of 'The new Lord' guessed who the third Hunter was! But one person DID come VERY close! :D and that person is... I'm not telling, because then you'd all be able to guess who the third Hunter is! XD**

**Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to Cat Attack 411 who requested so many times that I update this! :D**

**Anyway, enough rambling-may I present to you...**

The young girl shivered as she unzipped her tent, the cold night air sent tremors up her spine and her warm breath formed misty, white tendrils as it hit the air. "Come on, Taylor!" She shouted through chattering teeth as she stepped out of the tent and onto the cold, grass floor outside.

"I'm coming Sam." Taylor shouted back "Let me just get my coat on, it's freezing out there!"

Sam nodded slowly, too cold to even talk now-Camping maybe wasn't such a smart idea. Even in the middle of summer the nights were freezing cold. She waited a few seconds before her companion-Taylor-Stepped out of the tent and zipped it back up.

"Why are we camped so far from the toilets?" Taylor shuddered "It's...its stupid."

"Yeah." Sam replied quietly "What's worse is that...that we have to go together."

"It's not my fault-Mum said we have to so that we're safer." Taylor explained-causing Sam to sigh, her breath was like white fire in the atmosphere, floating for a few seconds before being consumed and extinguished by the cold.

"Safer from what?" She questioned "We're in the middle of nowhere, what the heck do we need keeping safe from?"

"I don't know, but mum said so!" They walked in silence for the next few seconds before Taylor froze. "Can you here that, Sam?" she mumbled through rattling teeth.

"No." Sam answered, stopping as well "What is it?"  
"Footsteps..." Taylor whispered, as if she was scared to talk any louder.

"No." Sam dis-agreed "Probably just a rabbit or something." But the frightened tone of her voice gave her away-she didn't believe it was a rabbit. Taylor shook her head slowly.

"It was too loud." She contradicted, but didn't press the matter further. Instead, she grabbed Sams' arm and pulled her forward through the field and towards the toilet. "Let's just go-I want to get back to bed." She scowled hurriedly.

"Ok then, let's just be quick because I need to pee and-" She stopped halfway through her sentence and fell to the ground.

"Sam?" Taylor exclaimed as her sister collapsed. "Sam, can you hear me?" She stood for a few seconds twitching nervously-unsure what to do. "I'll go get help!" she decided "Yeah, that's what I'll Do! You'll be-" She didn't have time to finish before she too fell to the floor next to Sam. A man-or rather, boy-stood over her, a smirk on his face. His friend-who was more of a man than a boy-stood behind him peering over his shoulder, holding a look of glee. The pair of them literally dived on the girls, the one who had knocked them out jumped on Taylor and stabbed her arm before putting his lips to the cut and drinking the blood deeply. His partner jumped on Sam, but was less careful-trying to follow the other mans actions; he used his nails to cut a small hole in Sams arm, but missed and ended up slicing her entire wrist and arm so that blood pooled from it. He drank it quickly; lapping it up like a cat would lap up milk. The two girls were still as their life's faded away, as their blood was gulped down the throats of the two hungry men-who didn't even look ashamed at what they were doing. Then, without warning, a figure approached them lit by torchlight. The two men swung around-blood still dripping from their lips. The first of the two men darted forward then, and the only sounds that could be heard were the woman's distant screams as they echoed into the night...

**Short chapter, I know! But it's only the intro-as the rest of the story shall be from Darren's point of view! **


	2. Vancha March

**This chapter is back in Darrens P.O.V! And continues from where the last one left off! Enjoy it? 'Cause...um...stuff happens? XD**

I jumped forward on instinct, knocking the woman to her feet-she screamed in both horror and surprise, her voice ringing in my ears. I bent over and breathed on her face-almost immediately she fell unconscious, silencing her screams.

"Steve?" I hissed across the field. Steve Leonard grinned at me, his eyes glistening in the darkness. He looked down at the bodies of the two young girls, then at the woman. "What do we do with her?"  
"We leave her!" I instructed.

"But the girls were so young! They didn't fill me!" He grinned, indicating that he wanted to drink from the woman, causing me to sigh. Why we chose such young children for both his and my first feeds as vampaneze I will never know. I followed Steve's eyes and looked at the two young girls. They looked so innocent now, like...like Annie. I stared in shock as I imagined Annie like this-blood stained, lifeless...nothing left. These kids were someone's family-they were someone's friends, and we'd just killed them-Stole their lives. What would I have done if someone had done this to Annie-My Annie, my sister Annie-it was too much to think about, because I wasn't a full monster yet. I still had feelings-I could still feel sympathy and sorrow and love. I wanted to be sick-this couldn't be happening. The blood had felt so warm, so delicious as it ran down my throat. Just the thought of it made my mouth water, but I had to stop myself. It was delicious blood, which I had taken from a girl I had just killed. My head told me it was so right, but my heart...deep in my heart I knew it was wrong. I took a few deep breaths-I was a vampaneze now, there was no time for any of this. I had to get on with my life-I had to kill.

"Shan?" Steve said "SHAN?"

"Huh?" I shook my head, snapping out of the daze. "What?" He indicated to the bodies of the two young girls and the elder woman. As if automatically knowing what he meant, I grinned. "We'll have to hide them!"

"Where?"  
"Um..." I hesitated. If we hid them somewhere no one would have found them, then the woman would look for them-she had seen them, so she'd find them. We couldn't kill her; I wouldn't let myself-or Steve. We'd killed enough tonight. We'd have to hide them somewhere that they'd find the bodies-then they'd only have to look for the killers, who would be long gone by the time they even started the investigation. I glanced up the field in the direction that the girls had been walking. "The toilets?" I said as I grabbed one of the girls-Taylor-and pulled her along. Steve did the same with Sam and they dragged the girls along before they got to the toilet block. It was a small concrete building containing a row of 6 separate toilet cubicles. I hoisted up Taylor carefully and placed her so that she was sat inside one of the cubicles-she was so pale, but it looked like she was sleeping. I waited for Steve before leaving and running back into the forest that lined both the field and the cirque. What had we done? We'd been so carless, so dumb-so stupid. I needed Gannen, and fast. He could help, right? Of course he couldn't-what would I tell him? What could I do? There was nothing, I couldn't fix this, and neither could he. I looked back at Steve-he stood grinning manically, his eyes alive with amazement and excitement. He loved this life-it was obvious. Sighing again, we walked further into the woods-trying to be as quiet as possible so that we could listen out for any signs of the other vampaneze. "Gannen?" I whispered after a while. "Gannen?" There was no reply, and I was starting to get worried. Where could he have gone? He'd promised me to stay in the forest-not that he had had a choice, I had ordered him to and I was his lord-he couldn't dis-obey me. "GANNEN?" I yelled louder, but there was still no reply-not a single noise. Then I heard more screaming-this time coming from the cirque. "STEVE! HURRY!" I shouted quickly, making my way back to the circus. It sounded like people were in trouble, so much trouble. "STEVE!" I yelled again, noticing that my assistant-it felt so weird calling him that-was lacking behind. Of course, Steve couldn't run as fast as I could-he was only a half-blood. I burst through the clearing and into the cirque, but was surprised to find it empty. Normally this wouldn't have been a shock-it was the middle of the night after all, but something had happened and I had expected people to be frantic. Yet there was silence-I waited whilst Steve caught up with me before moving forward. There was still silence, then another scream, this time coming from near Evras tent-on the far side on the cirques camp site. As I got closer I heard screams and shouts of people telling someone to stop. 'Larten!' was the first thing I thought to myself-where was he? He had to be Ok, he just had to be. I could hear Hiberius Tall telling people to leave-trying to get them away from what was happening, but they didn't. "SHAN!" Steve screamed at me "Where are we going? What are we doing?" he growled, you could tell he was agitated. I didn't answer him, and didn't even look back to see if he had continued following me. "NO!" I shouted as I finally came to a halt near Evras tent. Everyone was crowded around in a circle; I pushed my way through the crowd before wishing I hadn't. In the centre of the circle was Gannen Harst-his face now bloody and red. Next to him was someone else, someone that I'd never seen before but recognised immediately. He was tall and wore only purple animal hides, his green hair was slick and he wore a bet of throwing stars around his waist. It was vampire prince-Vancha March.

"SHAN!"Gannen hissed as he saw me, "Get out of here!" he croaked-Vancha raised his throwing Star and aimed it at the vampaneze. "DARREN!" Gannen shouted at me, causing the vampire to drop his weapon and stare-open mouthed at me.

"Darren Shan" he gasped "Larten's Assistant?" At this Gannen laughed.

"Ex-assistant!" he grinned, realising that his opponent was distracted and taking the opportunity. He swung his fist forward but Vancha dodged it, still gaping at me. Vancha grabbed another throwing star and threw it at Gannen. It sliced through the air narrowly missing his shoulder. I had to do something, or both of them would get seriously injured.

"Um..." I stuttered "THAT'S RIGHT, MARCH!" I grinned "EX-ASISSTANT!" Vancha growled and jumped to the side as Gannen struck again. "And d'you want to know the best part?" I asked, taking a deep breath and revealing to him-and myself-the horrible truth for the first time. "HE'S DEAD" I KILLED LARTEN CREPSLEY!" Then there was only silence, stares and looks of pure horror from the vampire, the vampaneze and the cirque performers around me.

**xD R&R? Please? I'll give you all a cookie? *holds up cookie jar* or some tea?**

**I have crep-tea and St-tea-ve? xD They are awesome teas!**

**YOU'LL GET TEA AND A COOKIE! :D **


	3. Death and destruction

**I'M BACK! Okay, so I'm SO SO SO SO SO sorry that this took 6 months to update! But honestly? Its not been physically possible for me to D: SO much has been happening...But i can do it now? And i plan to be making regular updates in the future! ;) **

**Thanks for reading, Please R and R! ^_^ **

Seconds passed like hours, as the reality of the situation became more apparent. The terror-struck faces of everyone around me soon turned to looks of disgust-I could guarantee these people weren't my friends anymore. I wanted to look around, to search the crowd for Evra; or even Mr Tall, people who might not hate me yet-but i didn't dare take my eyes off the Vampire in the middle. I could see the anger build up inside him; he balled his first, before opening it and balling it again. Taking a few steps back, i saw Vancha get ready to dive forward, and quickly jumped to the side; I did it just in time as the green-haired man crashed to the floor. "HARST!" I screamed, and just as Vancha got ready to attack again, Gannen pounced. The pair collided, and Vancha cried out in pain as his brothers nails sliced across his face, and the Vampaneze managed to grab hold of his arm. Getting ready to attack again, Gannen yelled as Vancha spun around and kicked out-causing the purple-skinned man to release his grip and fall backwards. Smirking, Vancha licked his fingers and wiped the spit across the cut on his cheek-giving Gannen merely seconds to get back up onto his feet. The next few seconds passed in a blur, as Vancha pulled out yet another throwing star and aimed it at the Vampaneze. Gannen dived to the side, but Vancha aim was too accurate and the thin metal embedded itself in his stomach. Blood slowly poured down his body, as he fell backwards again. The shot had been too perfect-The wound may be fatal. "GANNEN!" My voice was broken, as i tried to muster what confidence i could. I had already almost lost him once, and even if he wasn't exactly a friend, I wasn't prepared to lose him for real. Vancha turned to me as i shouted, his eyes ablaze with hatred, and he spat a mixture of blood and green mucus to the floor beside me. Knowing i was too shocked to move, he walked over to his brother and pulled the star out of his body-causing the blood to pool around his feet. Gannen was too weak to react. He wiped the fresh blood off his weapon and onto the animal hides he wore, before placing it back in his belt.  
"Shan." I heard someone whisper my name, but it wasn't Vancha, or Gannen. I flicked my head to the side, and saw Steve hidden among the crowd. No one else heard him, their hearing wasn't strong enough-Not even Vancha, who wasn't paying attention to any of the noises around him. I was just glad he was distracted. "On the count of three...1..." Steve continued, though i had no idea what he was on about. I didn't have time to ask though, as Vancha finished with his brother, and stars, and walked back over to me-preparing to end my life. I tried to jump to my feet, but just as i did Steve jumped out from the crowd and-with a crash-landed on top of Vancha March. "STEVE! NO!" Steve didn't listen. Why? I thought to myself-there was no way Steve could win this. He was a newly blooded half-Vampaneze, and Vancha was a 200 year old full-blood.

He didn't stand a chance.

Though what happened next was almost impossible. Vancha spun around in retaliation-and should have knocked Steve straight to the floor, but the half-Vampaneze stayed put. The strain became apparent on Vanchas face as the pair stayed in that position-Steve should have fallen by now, but they both seemed equally matched...It was unbelievable. Pulling myself to my feet, I used the situation to my advantage and ran around the back of the vampire. He couldn't stop both me and Steve at the same time-not at the moment. I didn't want to kill him-Even if he had tried to kill me...even if he was the enemy now...even if he had just about murdered Gannen...I wasn't all monster-not just yet. Instead, i blew into my hands before placing them over his face. My knockout gas set to work immediately, and he fell to the floor-causing Steve to stumble backwards at the sudden movement. "EVERYONE LEAVE!" I growled, the cirque performers could still do nothing but stare. "LEAVE. NOW!" They shook their heads at me, and muttered angrily between themselves. I heard Truska bark something in her seal-like language, and Evra agree with whatever she had said. The crowd weren't going anywhere.  
"That is enough!" Mr Tall stepped into the centre and stood next to me. "Everyone shall return to their tents and vans immediately!" There was silence for no longer than five seconds, before everyone started to walk away-whispering among themselves. No one would dare argue with Mr Tall right now. When everyone had left, but me, Steve, Gannen and the now sleeping Vancha-Mr Tall turned to me. "Tidy up and your mess and be gone." he ordered bluntly "If you are still here when the sun rises, then i shall give you to them." he indicated towards the tents and vans around us. "And no one wants that to happen, do they?" Then, without another word, he walked away. I turned to Steve, who just laughed.  
"That was eventful, wasn't it?" He grinned, before kicking Vanchas body. "I almost beat him!"  
"Almost!" I snapped "But you shouldn't have-you should be lying there dead with Gan-" I stopped, almost having forgotten about the other Vampaneze I rushed over to him, his blood stained the grass around him, but he still had a pulse-and i should see his chest falling and rising slowly. "Please Gannen..." i muttered "You'll be Okay...you won't die, not just yet..." He didn't reply, and i felt tears in my eyes. Sure he was going to die, i closed my eyes and silently prayed-Wishing that for once, just once, somebody i knew didn't have to leave like this...Besides, i was still a person, and was that really too much to ask?

**DONE! XD Kinda short, but oh well-Gannen..is...dying... D: *Takes a deep breath* NONE OF YOU-well, none of you not in the weirdo club-COULD UNDERSTAND HOW HARD THAT IS FOR ME TO WRITE! XD Anyway...Bye bye! ;) **


End file.
